


sleepsong

by liesmith



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, being all sad and shit, from a prompt online, kids maybe healing a little bit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-04
Updated: 2017-04-04
Packaged: 2018-10-14 17:38:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10541307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liesmith/pseuds/liesmith
Summary: prompt - driving hours through the mountainsorsam prickles, josh cracks, blackwood pines swallows.





	

They died approximately six months ago. Still no bodies. They buried their prom dresses in lieu of bodies about four months ago, buried their favorite things six feet below with nobody to carry them over into the next life. Two months was a long time of searching, of Sam crawling around all over Blackwood Pines desperately trying for some sort of hint they were out there somewhere.

Nothing ever came back.

Nothing ever came back from Blackwood Pines. Sam was _still_ hoping her old ski jacket, tagged with the year of a lift she went to when she was ten, would still turn up. She lost it at fifteen; maybe the lodge was trying to tell her it was time to let go. It was getting tight around the shoulders, but it was always so warm. 

Maybe the lodge was telling them it was time to let go of Beth and Hannah, too.

Still, when Josh asked her to come with him up for a weekend, she couldn’t say no. 

They took his car. The mountains were five hours away on a good day, eight or more on a bad one.

Luckily for them, it was a bad one. Sam didn’t mind driving in snow flurries, but it distressed her slightly to know they might not make it to the lodge before it got too dark out. Camping in a car sucked and neither of them knew how to handle the other anymore. With Josh, it felt like eggshells, cracking at the slightest breath. Her… she was a cactus, a prickle and a hiss at the smallest look.

They shouldn’t be doing this, but Sam drove on, letting the radio fade into silence as the further they got the less the stations broadcasted.

Josh spoke up first, voice cracking just slightly.

“It’s been awhile since we came here.”

“Six months.”

“Awhile.”

“I wouldn’t miss the place if it burned down,” Sam slowed down on a straight road, casting a glance at Josh. There it was, the prickle and the hiss. Josh just gave her a sympathetic look, wetting his lips.

“No, I don’t think anyone would,” His head lolled to the side, facing the window as he scrunched up in his seat, trying to get comfortable. Six and a half hours already with no break… even Sam felt her legs cramping when she moved them wrong.

Silence started again. Made Sam miss Beth and Hannah more, the ache in her chest blooming as she thought of the many rides up, of games of iSpy and would you evers, and-

“Sam, I… I, the… we…” Josh is struggling, trying to find the words. Sam’s used to this; he’s always had a bit of trouble with them and it seems to have only gotten worse since they’ve disappeared, “it… we never, their… rooms. Aren’t cleaned out. I…”

“You wanted me to come with you to do it.”

“Please,” He says, instead of yes, and Sam bites so hard on her tongue she draws blood as she struggles to not suddenly cry. It’s all too much, suddenly. She tries to force her focus on the road, to force the lodge to never come into view, but even with the flurries she can see the tell tale loom of it just amongst the pine trees. Almost like a horror movie, but one where the only two people who’ve mattered are dead and the monster is trapped in the car, claws sunk deep in both their hearts and minds.

She hurts. Josh hurts too, though. And he asked her, of all people… not even Chris, who was his everything.

Sam doesn’t respond, but she figured Josh didn’t need her too. She was already fucking out here and no way was she turning around in flurries. She’d never get home at that rate.

And… maybe, in a small part of her mind, she didn’t want too. She wanted Blackwood Pines to swallow her whole, let her be at peace and lost, just like them. They can bury her with her favorite things, her prom dress, with calla lilies clutched in her unfindable body.

Things don’t work that way, though. Instead, carefully, she pulls up to the ski lift. Parks the car. Grabs her duffle bag, let Josh grab his, lock the car. Follow him into the dark, into the quiet, long, cold ride to the lodge. Step off, follow him into the lodge.

The horror movie house.

When the lights go on, they are barely bright enough to make a difference. Generator has to warm up, and Sam silently parts from Josh. Climbs the steps, stares down the hallway. Her and Hannah usually shared the same room, while Beth and Josh shared one until Chris started coming, then Josh had taken his own. Sam just stands there, and stares, and she doesn’t even move when Josh touches her shoulder.

“Sam?”

“Don’t,” The prickles evolved into a stab, and Josh even takes a step back as if it was a physical one. He’s done her wrong, and Sam’s mad, but she knows this is what they need. She walks down the hall and feels like she’s underwater, moving so slow and sluggish, head swimming and pounding until she reaches Hannah’s room.

The door knobs freezing; her hands even more so, her heart worse. It feels like hours as she pushes the knob down and the door open, staring in the dimly lit room. Everything… it’s the same. Just dusty and cold. Like… her. The minor, bad joke makes Sam crack what’s something like a smile, and she closes the door behind her.

She hears Josh enter a room across from her, realizes it’s Beth’s, and suddenly Sam’s alone. She’s alone in this whatever by whatever square foot room, disconnected from the lodge and everything else. Her duffle bag drops, makes the softest noise as it hits the wood, and she stumbles forward like she’s drunk. Catches herself on Hannah’s wardrobe, hands knocking into the knobs and scrambling to open it, nearly falling into what’s left of her clothes. Sweaters, some pants folded on the shelf, two dresses, coats…

It becomes too much. Her chest feels like it’s gonna explode and her vision is white and she grabs something soft and yanks it off the hanger, makes it clatter against the wood and Sam falls. Elbows bang into the shelf, knees hit the wood hard, and she let’s it go. Months of trying to build a wall, of trying to be stronger, of trying to pretend she’s fine.

The floodgates have been opened, and Sam doesn’t know how to close them, face in Hannah’s sweater.

Blackwood Pines took everything from her. Told her to let it go. Her pink ski jacket with the faded tag. Her cat-eyed sunglasses. Her heart.

She doesn’t even know how long she’s been crying, but when she hiccups and pulls her face back, Josh is sitting silently next to her. She hadn’t even heard the door open, heart hammering so loudly in her ears, all that blood rushing… She just looks at him, cheeks hot and vision wet.

“They’re gone.”

“I know.”

“Josh, what the… what the hell am I supposed to do?”

“I don’t know,” He lays a hand over one of hers, fingers curling tight around it as he concentrates on that instead of looking at Sam. She doesn’t blame him; he’s hardly kept it together for the long, long months now.

“Stay with me.”

“Ok.”

Sam turns her palm upwards, links her fingers with Josh’s easier. She just stares ahead into the closet, at all of Hannah’s beautiful things, things that’ll be packed away one day when they’re strong enough to do it and given away, the things that Sam doesn’t keep and pretend she doesn’t have, hidden away in her drawers.

Her head falls to his shoulder and his own gently rests on hers, and she can feel him full body shudder against her.

Sam never wants to goddamn drive here ever again and never wants to step foot in this goddamn lodge unless it’s to burn it down, but now, right goddamn now -

It feels like home.

**Author's Note:**

> i found this sitting around in my drafts and. Here Ya Go, Folks. Take It.


End file.
